


I Told You To Get A Job

by Speedy_Martian



Series: Reality Check [1]
Category: Persona 4, Persona 5, Persona Series
Genre: M/M, Sort Of, adachi’s out of prison, but a slightly healthier imp, definitely gonna write more about them, he’s still an imp, he’s trying, i’m actually intrigued by these two, this is criminally short
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-10
Updated: 2020-11-10
Packaged: 2021-03-08 19:01:51
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,416
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27481660
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Speedy_Martian/pseuds/Speedy_Martian
Summary: He had never seen Adachi so shocked.
Relationships: Adachi Tohru & Maruki Takuto
Series: Reality Check [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2042593
Comments: 9
Kudos: 17





	1. Chapter 1

He had never seen Adachi so shocked.

He couldn’t remember when his eyes started absorbing the scarce amounts of light in Maruki’s room. At some point in their argument, Maruki was simply struck by the darkness gathering in his usually brown pools. The shadows had found home under his lower eyelids, in the gap of his eye sockets, where they drained all color from his irises.

What they left behind was a frighteningly dull grey. 

When Maruki was forced to calm his breaths and absorb the sight, he witnessed the persistence in his eyes weaken. He saw him tuck away his claws and teeth, deeming them useless in this fight, and all that was left of his defiance was tension in his shoulders.

If he wasn’t gripping the edge of his desk like a lifeline, Maruki would’ve copied his expression. He couldn’t remember the last time he raised his voice so loudly.

“Get real,” his friend muttered harshly under his breath and looked away, giving Maruki a brief pause from his dark gaze. “You’re fighting for a fantasy that would doom us all.”

“You can deny the truth as long as you want, but it won’t change the facts.” There was a familiar, knowing tone in his voice, the one that indicated experience. “People fail and get hurt, no matter how hard they work to prevent it. It’s the pill that everyone’s gotta swallow at one point or another.” 

He shrugged, “Facing these difficulties is what keeps humanity’s ball rolling. People gain experience and get stronger, making better results and contributing to society. Sure, it’s a tough existence, but they find their reasons that make it easier, like goals or supporters.”

“My old boss told me something that I still can’t fully agree with,” he chuckled bitterly, “but those with a healthier mind think he’s got a point. He said, life is an endless, torturous struggle, but it wouldn’t be life if it wasn’t.”

By the time he was finished, Adachi looked tired. Any offensive stance he had taken at the beginning of their argument had long evaporated. 

When Maruki said nothing, he sighed, a sound one would hear in the voice of a man on the brink of hopelessness. “Get a job, Maruki-san. Get a fucking job. Use that good brain of yours for something worth while. Get out and talk to people while you’re at it.”

It was the closest thing to raw care Maruki would ever hear in his neighbor’s voice.

There was nothing harder than looking into his eyes when he responded, but he forced himself to grin and bear it. He knew Adachi wouldn’t believe a word he said if he doesn’t keep the entirety of his body language open. Turning his body towards his friend, Maruki faced him with a frontal stance, hands in his coat’s pockets and an exhausted smile glued on his face. He hoped his eyes weren’t as dark as his.

“I’ll think about it.”

He wasn’t satisfied with that answer, if the slightest twitch that pricked at Adachi’s frown was any indication. However, his whole being swiftly shifted back into its natural position, leaving only the faintest effects of their argument. To anyone other than Maruki, it would almost seem as if he were a disgruntled, middle-aged man, possibly irritated with some discrepancies at work. 

“Do that,” he says, then turns his back to him and steps towards the exit.

He swiftly picked his garish, yellow raincoat off the hanger before leaving.


	2. Chapter 2

In the end, Adachi’s advice had been for nothing.

Maruki doesn’t regret anything.

He strolled down the glassy corridors of his magnificent Palace, his power surged through every nook and cranny in Tokyo. He could feel millions of desires run through his veins. He was a living, breathing embodiment of humanity’s cognition, weaving a tapestry out of their hopes and dreams to offer them a world they had always desired.

In return, Maruki gets what he always wanted. Peace and happiness of more than millions of individuals. 

They are happy, which makes him happy.

And yet-

Among those millions of individuals, he couldn’t find him.

He scoured his perfect reality, but he couldn’t find him.

Where is he? How did he lose him? He knew his mind inside out, dissected it during evenings on raggedy couches with beer bottles and loose laughter.

Out of millions he should be able to pick him out without any issues.

He has to find him.

He has to. 

He needs to show him, show him his achievement, show him his actualized vision. 

Look, Adachi-san, I made it. It’s possible, after all. Hard work and persistence always pays off. 

But, no matter how many times he sends his messages or combs the crowds, his old companion was nowhere to be found. As if humanity’s overwhelming subconscious swallowed him whole.

There was only one other logical option for his disappearance, but Maruki refused to acknowledge it. He feared if he believed it hard enough, it would come true. 

So, he kept looking. 

Amamiya broke out of his perfect reality, but he kept looking. He caused a chain reaction that led to his most dangerous adversaries to return and rebel against his world, but he kept looking.

Sumire opened her eyes, but he kept looking.

An intruder broke into his Paradise and ravaged it in a declaration of war, but he didn’t stop.

Until he was at the peak of his power and the Phantom Thieves became nothing but mere mice under Adam Kadmon’s godlike hand. 

They were one and the same, and it brought him to a painful realization that no one can truly understand him. His neighbor was gone. Amamiya and Yoshizawa picked their side. 

Adam’s mighty hands came down on his foes, pressing nine thieves under his palm, while their leader struggled in his firm grasp. His stance was wide open and there was something akin to a whistling sound in the background, but Maruki paid it no mind. Victory was just within his reach. 

He didn’t even see it.

An explosion went off on his right side.

The world shook in a quick, powerful tremor. His entire body was shaken like a lifeless rag doll, causing his senses to momentarily overload, until all he could see were abstract shapes and colors.

He might’ve screamed. He wasn’t sure.

His mind went blank. There was a strange, high pitched sound in his ears.

He realized too late why.

Suddenly, it was no longer Adam Kadmon. It was Adam and Maruki. 

Adam, with his neck most likely snapped due to the whiplash of the attack, who released his foes in favor of raising his hand to his head and gently caressing the massive fractures that spiderwebbed across his face. He followed the cracks until he reached the place of impact - his right eye.

And Maruki, forced to stare blankly at the sky through Adam’s eyes, surrounded by neurons and stuttering synapses. He realized that there is something utterly massive to his right. Slowly, he turned his head to see a long, wooden beam protruding through Adam’s right eye socket and sticking out of the back of his head. 

It wasn’t an explosion. It was a projectile.

Whatever it was, it had completely pierced Adam’s head. It was a few meters under him, but looked too close for comfort.

Somewhere, under bundles of nerves lay his mask. Fairly damaged, though Maruki failed to understand how.

It was only when the pain emerged on the side of his head and something liquid trickled down his face did he understand.

Adam was shot.

He was shot.

With trembling movement, Adam slid his fingers to the back of his head and pressed, pressed forward. His neck snapped and Maruki felt the world jerk again, but it was to see the perpetrator.

And there he was, piercing him once more with his dark gaze.

A sleek, black giant. He changed his appearance since the last time he saw him, but Maruki recognized that long coat and the sharp edges of a visor. He remembered how his claws crushed statues of gold and how his power razed the ground of his garden. 

Standing there in front of him was a man. He was a small, slim blob at the giant’s feet, but the sight of him had managed to steal the breath from his lungs. 

His hand was raised, holding a black object pointed straight at Adam’s head. A bright, yellow raincoat hung off his frame.

**Author's Note:**

> Presenting, My Neighbor Adachi AU. In which Adachi becomes a companion of yet another depressed workaholic, but this time, he tries to be actively supportive. As supportive as Adachi can get.
> 
> This is all very new to me and there’s a high probability that Adachi’s views sound a bit OOC. Let’s say he went through some therapy sessions and gained stupidly persistent, supportive buds (three, but it’s better than nothing). 
> 
> I might rewrite it a bit in the future, but for now, it is what it is.
> 
> He’s working at Munehisa’s airsoft shop. Questionable business, but he’s getting some money out of it.


End file.
